Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Blue Ribbon Whitewash

U.S. President George W. Bush has named his homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, to lead an internal inquiry into the much-criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House said on Tuesday.

A separate congressional inquiry will also investigate what went wrong with the federal response. But Bush so far has refused to back calls from Democrats for an independent commission to look at the disaster response.

A memo from White House chief of staff Andrew Card directed government departments and agencies to designate by Tuesday one senior official to be the coordinator to work with Townsend for their specific agency.

The memo directed agencies to give this effort "their full attention and highest priority," Duffy said.

The goal is to apply lessons learned to future emergencies.

Wasn't Townsend the one who took the desperate initial phone calls from Louisiana officials when the president was either playing the guitar or otherwise couldn't be bothered? Shouldn't she be under the microscope instead of leading the inquiry? Also, based on what I've read, Michael Chertoff needs some serious face time with accountability. And Townsend is going to be the one responsible for that?

of course it will be a white-wash. the question, "where was vp cheney during that fateful week and what was he doing", will not be asked.

i notice no one asking that question and cheney is acknowledged as the power behind the puppet.

also, why did secty of state condi rice feel comfortable enough to take a very public holiday right in the middle of the crisis. yes, i know that in our precious ordered system the state dept doesn't intervene in domestic affairs; but in any other country she would have been fired for exhibiting very bad judgement at minimum.

"According to the Heritage Foundation (not exactly a liberal propagandist), the rebuilding effort in New Orleans follows a 33 percent expansion of the federal government since 2001, a period that saw..."

The end of this article and Bill Maher have it right, Bush, this administration, has no plan for anything, just throw money at problems, propaganda is better than real ideas, cronyism, live to support your friends, and an inept leader hires inept employees.

"Is George Bush purely evil? Of course not. And that's what's so evil about him. He doesn't twirl a mustache and smirk and cackle. Well, he doesn't twirl a mustache. He's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. Wherever he goes, he stirs up such a humongous mess it can only be cleaned up by Halliburton. But he is not pure evil.

Because evil is a chain. Did any one person doom New Orleans? No, it's a chain. People vote for a corrupt leader; a corrupt leader puts unqualified cronies in high places, and when those cronies fuck up, evil gets done. The devil didn't fly up from hell and knock a hole in that levee. The levee just didn't get built because the money for it went to rich people's tax cuts and pork projects and corporate welfare.

Evil isn't "Salem's Lot." It's Trent Lott. This week, an ailing American bald eagle was found to be dying from mercury poisoning. Republicans immediately tried to blame it on the eagle's lifestyle choices. But it's worth noting that also this week, the White House threatened to veto limits on mercury pollution. Now, pure evil would be if George Bush sat around the White House saying, "Let's poison eagles!" And even I don't believe George Bush would do that.

Cheney would do that. And even he is not pure evil. Dick Cheney doesn't hate poor children and caribou. They're just in the way.

Bottom line: some people think Satan is real and some people think global warming is real. If you think stopping gays from doing it is more important than the ice caps melting, the boogeyman is you... "

You ever read the book 'The Peter principle'? In a nutshell - People rise to the level of their incompetence. This doesn't apply to Bush, he was elected, not promoted. it applies to any appointments made by him, though.

The Peter Principle does not apply to this administration.The people put into the positions were very competent in what Bush holds mostdear and that's loyalty and the ability to raise large sums of money.Being able to do the job is not a consideration.

It is interesting to think of the character (or lack of), of Congress (i.e., Tom Delay, Frist, and Hastert) and of this administration. Karl Rove told Bush to coddle the fanatical religious right (why not, they have huge communication facilities and control), combine that with their lying, saying one thing/doing another, fiscal mismanagement, cronyism and oil/war ideologues, we are heading for deep trouble.

Interesting and scary book on this topic. We have come far in our country and we are great because we are open to great ideas, our progress in many areas, we fix things as necessary (or until recently we did), and these guys want us to go back decades. God help us. God help the world.

Contempt: How the Right Wing Is Wronging American Justice by Catherine Crier.

well it makes perfect sense!!! after all, bush hired a chevron lawyer to investigate price gouging by the oil industry...

"President Bush made sure to preempt any real investigation into price gouging by his financial backers in the oil/gas industry when last year he appointed a former ChevronTexaco lawyer, Deborah Majoras, to head the FTC."

also, its becoming increasingly clear that rebuilding iraq is much more important than rebuilding a part of america that is mostly poor and black. republican congressional leadership proposes cutting every program and possibly even raising taxes to pay for hurricane relief and rebuilding, with the exception of iraq. 66% of the public disagrees.who are these people working for? last time i checked, it was the citizens of this country.

Gee, what a surprise! Faced with charges that the Bush Administration's response to Hurricane Katrina was slowed down ("retarded" might be a more apt choice of words) by cronyism in the relevant agencies; who does Dubya choose to "investigate" the mess?Ding!Of course! Another insider and crony!Really, does anyone REALLY expect anything different from this clownshow of an Adminstration?

Good lord. The tax cuts had nothing to do with the levees. The levees were built years ago. The ones that failed were new concrete and considered the best around New Orleans.

Of course there are poor people in New Orleans. They have been poor for years. They live in a corrupt Democratic run city in a corrupt Democratic run state. Do you know there are Louisiana officials being investigated by the FBI for stealing $60,000,000 in disaster preparation funds? That investigation started long before Katrina.

I've never been comfortable with the expression "Bush derangement syndrome." I am reviewing that position.

If the readers of this blog have it right I sure hope Democrat wins next because they operate via altruism. Political corruption is strictly confined to the rich white men in the GOP. The rich white men running the democrats are much different.

"Good lord. The tax cuts had nothing to do with the levees. The levees were built years ago. The ones that failed were new concrete and considered the best around New Orleans."

where'd you come up with this GOP talking point? That's not what the Army Corps of Engineers says.

Personally, I think that a lot of the fury and anger that was unleashed on Bush after Katrina (incompetent and uncaring as the administration seemed in the initial days afterwards) is really about Iraq and a general sense of buyer's remorse. People are just fed up with him.

Republicans can sleep at night because they continue to win elections. While all of you liberal nutjobs continue to search for that elusive "Impeachment Moment" ie: Bush lied about WMDs (Clinton, France, Germany believed Iraq had them); Bush lied in the 16 words about Iraq trying to obtain yellowcake (proven true by the way); Hilburton; Bush personally evacuated Saudis after 911 (Clarke admitted he gave the order); Bush's opposition to Kyoto caused Katrina (obsurdly ridiculous, by the way 99-1 vote in Senate during Clinton Administration against)); funds spent in Iraq prevented us from building levees (Army Corps of Engineers denies); Democrat looters (freedom fighters)run wild in N.O. because too many troops in Iraq; Every mother who lost son or daughter in Iraq entitled to speak to President twice (no matter how looney they are; Haliburton; Karl Rove is Darth Vader (arranged for hurricane to get attention off of him and to evacuate "Blue" voters from Louisiana to hopeless insignificance in "Red State" Texas: Bush sometimes has to use bathroom.

For some reason none of these "proven" offenses seems to stick.

Now we want another commission to investigate Katrina. They probably will do a fine job, just like the 911 commission that ignored Able Danger and then gave 6 different reasons for not considering the information that Atta had been identified in the US during the Clinton Administration.

I hope the liberals continue to look for that impeachment moment because another Republican president in 2008 will change that last bastion of undemocratic democratic hopes, the Supreme Court, forever.

Charlie Rose had a very interesting conversation with Viggo Mortensen (click on the video).

They talk about the administration and the book, "Voices of a People's History of the United States".

The big point being, that this administration, although Republican, are not conservatives. Conservative values are good, like fiscal conservatism or environmental stewardship. The intellectually honest conservatives are saying it like it is, and I respect that so much (thank you, thank you, thank you.). Radicals, left or right, are not good. The difference is, I think, in most cases the left just ignores the left radicals (free speech, as long as they don't hurt anyone else), but the right seems to embrace the right radicals. I think a large part of the right base has been bamboozled by this administration.

I have a whole new appreciation and respect for David Brooks. I respect intelligence, honesty, and straight talk, and although it is hard, they are standing up. Even conservatives on the McLaughlin Group are speaking up asking where are the conservatives in this administration.

I realize politicians lie, but Bush and this administration has taken it to another level. It would be interesting to look at Bush/Cheney campaign's both 2000 and 2004, and match their words with their actions.

Unfortunately, how can we trust this administration now? They have lied so much; if you don't want to call it lying call it saying one thing and doing another. This situation is akin to a family, where Bush is the kid that keeps screwing up, and the parents are so frustrated that they call in Dr. Phil, or the nanny, or send the kid to detention because the trust is gone because it was abused, time, after time, after time, after time.

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